Wings Over the World tour

infobox concert tour
concert_tour_name = Wings Over the World tour


artist = Wings
dates = August 9, 1975 -
October 21, 1976
number_of_legs = 6
number_of_shows = 66 in total
31 in North America
17 in the United Kingdom
9 in Australia
9 in Europe

In 1975 and 1976, Paul McCartney's band Wings embarked on the ambitious Wings Over the World tour.

History

In contrast to Wings' two low-profile, smaller-scale outings of 1972, this was a major, highly publicised concert tour that took place mostly in arenas. More than two million people attended 66 shows on three continents — Australia, Europe, and North America (where it was known as the Wings Over America Tour and represented McCartney's first appearances in concert since the last Beatles tour in 1966). Touring Japan was also planned, but was cancelled by that country's authorities because of McCartney's 1972 Swedish marijuana arrest.

The tour came upon the heels of two Wings album releases: "Venus and Mars" and "Wings at the Speed of Sound". Both were described as "stadium rock" type albums, and the songs from both were heavily represented on the tour, as were numbers from the popular and critically-acclaimed "Band on the Run". To emphasize that Wings was a real band and not just a McCartney showcase, Denny Laine sang several lead vocals, including "Go Now", reprising his vocal on The Moody Blues' first hit from 1965, and Simon & Garfunkel's 1966 song "Richard Cory". Jimmy McCulloch also sang lead on his song "Medicine Jar". But most noteworthy was McCartney's decision to perform a minimal sampling of five of his own Beatles songs - despite an earlier disinclination to do any at all. Performances of "Yesterday" and "The Long and Winding Road" used muted horn arrangements rather than their original strings, in the latter case vividly emphasizing McCartney's strong objections to Phil Spector's heavy-handed strings treatment on the "Let it Be" album.

Wings' lineup for the tour was Paul and Linda McCartney, Joe English, Denny Laine, and Jimmy McCulloch. They were joined by brass and woodwind players Howie Casey, Steve Howard, Thaddeus Richard, and Tony Dorsey.

Tour Setlists

1975

United Kingdom

Admission prices ranged from GBP 1 to GBP 2.80.
*09/09/1975 flagicon|England Gaumont - Southampton, England
*10/09/1975 flagicon|England Hippodrome - Bristol, England
*11/09/1975 flagicon|Wales Capitol - Cardiff, Wales
*12/09/1975 flagicon|England Free Trade Hall - Manchester, England
*13/09/1975 flagicon|England Hippodrome - Birmingham, England
*15/09/1975 flagicon|England Empire Theatre - Liverpool, England
*16/09/1975 flagicon|England City Halls - Newcastle upon Tyne, England
*17/09/1975 flagicon|England Hammersmith Odeon - London, England
*18/09/1975 flagicon|England Hammersmith Odeon - London, England
*20/09/1975 flagicon|Scotland Usher Hall - Edinburgh, Scotland
*21/09/1975 flagicon|Scotland Apollo Centre - Glasgow, Scotland
*22/09/1975 flagicon|Scotland Capitol - Aberdeen, Scotland
*23/09/1975 flagicon|Scotland Caird Hall - Dundee, Scotland

Australia

Admission prices ranged from AU$6.80 to AU$10.
*01/11/1975 flagicon|Australia Entertainment Centre, Perth, Australia
*04/11/1975 flagicon|Australia Apollo Stadium - Adelaide, Australia
*05/11/1975 flagicon|Australia Apollo Stadium - Adelaide, Australia
*07/11/1975 flagicon|Australia Hordern Pavilion - Sydney, Australia
*08/11/1975 flagicon|Australia Hordern Pavilion - Sydney, Australia
*10/11/1975 flagicon|Australia Festival Hall - Brisbane, Australia
*11/11/1975 flagicon|Australia Festival Hall - Brisbane, Australia
*13/11/1975 flagicon|Australia Sidney Myer Music Bowl - Melbourne, Australia
*14/11/1975 flagicon|Australia Sidney Myer Music Bowl - Melbourne, Australia

1976

Europe

*20/03/1976 flagicon|Denmark Falkoner Theatre - Copenhagen, Denmark
*21/03/1976 flagicon|Denmark Falkoner Theatre - Copenhagen, Denmark
*23/03/1976 flagicon|Germany Deutschlandhalle - Berlin, Germany
*25/03/1976 flagicon|Netherlands Ahoy Sportpaleis - Rotterdam, Netherlands
*26/03/1976 flagicon|France Pavilion - Paris, France

Wings Over America

More than 600,000 people attended 31 shows in the United States and Canada. In order to reduce the stress of moving their young family around the country during the course of the tour, the McCartneys rented four houses in New York City, Dallas, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Each night, after the show was over, they would fly in a specially-chartered BAC One-Eleven back to the nearest one of the rented houses.

The beginning of the American leg of the tour was delayed for nearly a month because lead guitarist Jimmy McCulloch broke his finger during rehearsals. This led to more friction between McCulloch and the rest of the group, especially McCartney.

A surprise was planned for one of the Los Angeles shows, and the fans in attendance were treated to the sight of McCartney's former Beatles bandmate Ringo Starr joining him on stage and handing him a bouquet of flowers.

Many of the concerts were professionally recorded at McCartney's request. The best performances would later be compiled (after adding necessary overdubs in the studio) and released as a Christmastime triple album late in 1976 called "Wings over America". The album was very popular, reaching Number One in the US and Number Eight in the UK. A single was also released from the collection, "Maybe I'm Amazed"/"Soily", a top ten hit in America and a top twenty hit in the UK. In addition, in 1981 a concert film of the Seattle show was released under the title of "Rockshow" by Miramax.

*03/05/1976 flagicon|United States Tarrant County Convention Hall - Fort Worth, TX
*04/05/1976 flagicon|United States The Summit - Houston, TX
*07/05/1976 flagicon|United States Olympia - Detroit, MI
*08/05/1976 flagicon|United States Olympia - Detroit, MI
*09/05/1976 flagicon|Canada Maple Leaf Gardens - Toronto, ON
*10/05/1976 flagicon|United States Richfield Coliseum - Cleveland, OH
*12/05/1976 flagicon|United States Spectrum - Philadelphia, PA
*14/05/1976 flagicon|United States Spectrum - Philadelphia, PA
*15/05/1976 flagicon|United States Capital Centre - Landover, MD
*17/05/1976 flagicon|United States Capital Centre - Landover, MD
*18/05/1976 flagicon|United States Omni Coliseum - Atlanta, GA
*19/05/1976 flagicon|United States Omni Coliseum - Atlanta, GA
*21/05/1976 flagicon|United States Nassau Coliseum - Uniondale, NY
*22/05/1976 flagicon|United States Boston Garden - Boston, MA
*24/05/1976 flagicon|United States Madison Square Garden - New York, NY
*25/05/1976 flagicon|United States Madison Square Garden - New York, NY
*27/05/1976 flagicon|United States Riverfront Coliseum - Cincinnati, OH
*29/05/1976 flagicon|United States Kemper Arena - Kansas City, MO
*31/05/1976 flagicon|United States Chicago Stadium - Chicago, IL
*01/06/1976 flagicon|United States Chicago Stadium - Chicago, IL
*02/06/1976 flagicon|United States Chicago Stadium - Chicago, IL
*04/06/1976 flagicon|United States Civic Center - St. Paul, MN
*07/06/1976 flagicon|United States McNichols Arena - Denver, CO
*10/06/1976 flagicon|United States Kingdome - Seattle, WA
*13/06/1976 flagicon|United States Cow Palace - San Francisco, CA
*14/06/1976 flagicon|United States Cow Palace - San Francisco, CA
*16/06/1976 flagicon|United States Sports Arena - San Diego, CA
*18/06/1976 flagicon|United States Convention Center, Tucson, AZ
*21/06/1976 flagicon|United States Great Western Forum - Los Angeles, CA
*22/06/1976 flagicon|United States Great Western Forum - Los Angeles, CA
*23/06/1976 flagicon|United States Great Western Forum - Los Angeles, CA

Europe

*19/09/1976 flagicon|Austria Stadthalle - Vienna, Austria
*21/09/1976 flagicon|Yugoslavia Dom Sportova - Zagreb, Yugoslavia
*25/09/1976 flagicon|Italy Piazza San Marco - Venice, Italy
*27/09/1976 flagicon|Germany Olympiahalle - Munich, Germany

"Wings Over Wembley" concerts

Admission prices ranged from GBP 1.80 to GBP 3.50.
*19/10/1976 flagicon|England Empire Pool - London, England
*20/10/1976 flagicon|England Empire Pool - London, England
*21/10/1976 flagicon|England Empire Pool - London, England

ee also

*Rockshow
*Wings over America